By just cleaning your siding, you are able to prevent any costly repairs and also add value to the home. You can have trouble free siding if you give it regular maintenance and proper care. By cleaning it, you're able to remove a lot of the dirt and mildew that might even shorten the life span of the siding. Maintaining a clean house can protect the investment that you made by purchasing it. It can add up to 10% on the resale value by just looking nice.
Tips for Cleaning All Types of Siding: Fiber Cement, Stucco, Vinyl, Wood, Metal, and BrickNo matter what type of siding your home has, it can benefit from having a good cleaning to remove any of the dirt, grime, grit, and mildew. The best way to do this – no matter what type of material it is – is with a bucket of warm water and mild soap that has a half a cup of tri-sodium phosphate in it. This can be found in any hardware or home improvement stores. You then use this mix with a soft bristled brush on a long handle to reach higher up on your home. Clean the home in sections from top to bottom and make sure to rinse.
You may need to spare a weekend to clean the siding on your whole home and if you do not have the time, you can pay a professional to clean it for around $300 to $500. A power washer can be rented and used to clean your home, but if you do not have experience with it, you might want to stay away from using one. You could end up getting water in cracks and crevices you might not want it to be in.
Inspect Your Siding for Any Damage
Before you decide to clean the outside of your home, make sure to do a walk around and look for any damage done to the siding. Siding is where you're likely to find water damage. Look into moldings, windows, and other cracks where it might pool. Cracked caulk can be a sign of this when it has pulled away from the original area. Reapply the caulk in that area on hot days to provide maximum adhesion. Some other things to look out for are warped wood, chipped or peeling paint, or cracks in the siding.
The sooner you fix these problems with your siding, the better it will be for your home and your wallet. An experienced professional siding contractor in the St. Paul area is able to help you with any damage that you find. Getting it taken care of before winter means you'll prevent further damage to your home.
Repairing and Painting SidingDamage can be done to signing by any means, everyday accidents, weather, just about anything that it comes in contact with. Repairing the horizontal lap siding requires an expert siding contractor. They will be able to replace just the damaged area without having to remove the panels surrounding it.
If the home has wood siding, it should be repainted every five years or once the paint starts to deteriorate. You can paint it yourself or hire a professional crew to paint it for you for a couple thousand dollars. If you clean the home yourself, you will see a decrease in the price it would take them to clean it before they paint. Fiber-cement siding requires painting, but less often then wood, around 8 to 10 years. It is a stable material and will not expand and contract with the weather conditions. Having high quality paints on the home will add to the value, plus last a lot longer. Make sure to seal any cracks or holes that you find during the repair process.
Quarve installs seamless steel siding, fiber cement siding from James Hardie, and Crane insulated vinyl siding to homes in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Be sure to call our professional siding company for any other questions or concerns you may have about the siding that is on your home.
Subscribe to Quarve Contracting's Blog
Comments